Gene J. Puskar / AP

Chula Vista, Calif.'s dramatic victory on Thursday was as exciting as any baseball you'll see.

Besides, the LLWS is really the way sports should be. I’ve gone to the tournament, just to see it. Admission is free. Hot dogs are under two bucks. Same with soft drinks. There’s no beer. Everyone who works there is a volunteer. The money goes back into the game, and that includes the TV money. What’s wrong with that?

It’s a great advertisement for what’s good about America, and fans of the foreign teams get to see all of it — the crowds on the hill behind the stadium, the kids sliding down the hill on sheets of cardboard, the well-mannered and enthusiastic fans, the purity of the competition. There aren’t many better pictures of our country that get broadcast abroad.

My only real objection to the competition are curve balls. Kids shouldn’t be throwing them. The evidence is pretty good on that. Little League doesn’t think so and has its own surveys showing that kids don’t get hurt throwing curves that age, but the studies have the odor of climate-change denial about them. Coaches love curves because they get 12-year-olds out, and they’ll find studies to tell them what they want to hear.

But surgeons say they’re operating on a lot more juvenile arms today than ever before. Why not just ditch the curve balls? Hasn’t anybody heard of a straight change-up? The games might be a bit more high-scoring, but what’s wrong with that?

I could also do without the kid from Hanna Montana working the sidelines with the enthusiasm — and at least twice the intelligence — of a fox terrier on amphetamines. But I suppose the young fans love it, so I’ll live with it. It’s their game, not mine.

But the rest is just fine, perfect, even. And the games are genuinely fun to watch.

Give it a rest, Sally, okay?

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